1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to computing systems and, more specifically, to system firmware and virtualization.
2. Description
Many computing systems include a network interface card (NIC) to provide for communications with other systems and devices over a network. In a computing system running multiple operating systems (OSs) on multiple virtual machines, each OS typically needs to communicate with its own NIC. Thus, multiple NICs are required to be installed on the computing system to support the multiple OSs running in virtual machines. However, it may be uneconomical and perhaps impractical to install multiple NICs. In some instances, the computing system has no spare Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) or PCI Express (PCIE) slots to install additional NICs, or has no room in the specific form factor of the computing system. In other cases, the cost of additional NICs may be prohibitive for the overall cost of the computing system.